In order to achieve higher peak data rates, it has been proposed operate in spectrum allocations of different sizes including wider spectrum allocations than e.g. those of Release 8 LTE (LTE=Long Term Evolution), e.g. up to 100 MHz, e.g. to achieve the peak data rate of 100 Mbit/s for high mobility and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility. Moreover, backward compatibility is desirable.
A possible measure for achieving wider spectrum allocations is carrier aggregation, where two or more component carriers are aggregated, as it is considered for LTE-Advanced in order to support downlink transmission bandwidths larger than 20 MHz.
A user equipment (UE), e.g. a terminal, may simultaneously receive one or multiple component carriers depending on its capabilities:                An LTE-Advanced terminal with reception capability beyond 20 MHz can simultaneously receive transmissions on multiple component carriers.        An LTE Rel-8 terminal can receive transmissions on a single component carrier only, provided that the structure of the component carrier follows the Rel-8 specifications.        
FIG. 1 gives an example of the carrier aggregation of an LTE Advanced System. M Rel8 bandwidth “chunks”, or component carriers 2, indicated with C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5 over frequency f in FIG. 1, are combined together to form M×Rel8 Bandwidth 4, e.g. 5×20 MHz=100 MHz, given M=5, for the system illustrated in FIG. 1. In the illustrated example, Rel'8 terminals receive/transmit on one component carrier, whereas LTE-Advanced terminals may receive/transmit on multiple component carriers simultaneously to reach the higher bandwidths, e.g. an LTE Advanced maximum bandwidth 4 of 100 MHz, as shown in FIG. 1.
On the other hand, besides higher peak data rates, power consumption is an important issue.
In view of the above-described situation, there exists a need for an improved technique that enables carrier aggregation, while substantially avoiding or at least reducing one or more of the above-identified problems.